A University of Louisville student parent and a trio of nonprofits are suing a company that runs off-campus apartment complexes, claiming it discriminates against families with children.

The lawsuit says Asset Campus Housing Inc. — which owns or manages hundreds of rental properties across America, including The Arch and The Nine complexes near the U of L's Belknap campus — violated the federal Fair Housing Act prohibiting discrimination based on familial status, race or certain other characteristics.

The National Fair Housing Alliance, the Lexington Fair Housing Council, the Fair Housing Center of West Michigan and 21-year-old U of L student Maya Moss sued the company Tuesday.

Their lawsuit claims Asset Campus Housing tries to exclude families by enforcing a one-person-per-bedroom occupancy limit. It also says the company has made parents sign additional leases for their children and actively discouraged people with kids from renting its apartments.

Moss, for example, was on the verge of moving to The Arch last year with her toddler when she found out the company would require her to rent two bedrooms instead of one and sign a second lease — effectively doubling her rental expenses — if she planned to live there with her daughter, according to the lawsuit.

"With school starting, limited housing options, and a child for which she needed to provide housing, Ms. Moss felt as if she had no choice but to sign the leases for her and her child and pay the extra fees associated with having to rent two bedrooms at The Arch," the lawsuit says.

Asset Campus Housing markets itself as providing student housing but doesn't actually require its tenants to be enrolled in college, according to a news release from the National Fair Housing Alliance. Its "highly unreasonable" policies put an undue economic burden on student parents like Moss, the alliance said.

"As a mom, I understand how difficult it is to raise a young child, attend school, and work. Maya is trying to create the best life for her daughter by getting a college education and obtaining secure housing for her family," said Lisa Rice, the alliance's president and CEO, in a statement. "We should be applauding and supporting her; instead, Asset Campus Housing has chosen to place more obstacles in her way."

The alliance and the other nonprofits involved in the lawsuit said they spent over a year investigating Asset Campus Housing after they received complaints from people affected by its policies.

The lawsuit says the organizations had "testers" contact rental properties the company runs in Kentucky and Michigan, including The Nine in Louisville and University Trails, a complex near the University of Kentucky campus in Lexington. At The Nine, a tester told an employee she had two kids and allegedly was informed that "this is probably not where you want to live."

Employees at The Nine and The Arch said they couldn't comment, and U of L and UK also declined to discuss the litigation. Neither school is legally involved in the case.

“While I can’t comment on the specifics of litigation to which UK is not a party, we do expect all apartment complexes serving UK students to abide by all federal laws," UK spokesman Jay Blanton said Wednesday.

The lawsuit seeks damages from Asset Campus Housing as well as a permanent injunction prohibiting the business from continuing its allegedly illegal conduct.